Zak Brown had said that Daniel Ricciardo is not yet comfortable with the car and he would like for him to perform better.
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Daniel Ricciardo who is struggling with his form and car in this season has confessed that McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s recent comments that his stay at the team had missed to live up to expectations were “not false,” as the Australian provided an honest appraisal of his time at the Woking-based team, which he joined from Renault for 2021. Brown had said that the Australian driver is not yet comfortable with the car and he would like for him to perform better.
When asked about Brown’s comments ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, where Ricciardo would crash in Free Practice 2 before finishing 13th, while Norris finished sixth, Ricciardo expressed that he agrees with what has been said and it doesn’t affect him at a personal level. “It’s not false – it’s pretty true. Well firstly, comments I don’t take personally. My skin is tanned, beautiful, and also thick! But it hasn’t [met our expectations].”
“No one’s going to be harder on me than myself, I know that I don’t want to be racing around in 10th, 12th places. I still believe I can be at the front and belong at the front, so it’s been a little bit more, certainly, testing at times, in terms of us trying to get up there and maximize myself in this car. But we’re working together hard at it; the team wants it, I want it, so we’re just working through it.” added Ricciardo.
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Meanwhile, when asked what it would take to catch Lando Norris who has 48 points to Ricciardo’s 11 this year, the eight-time Grand Prix winner Ricciardo said “I think there’s still more that I’d like to be getting out of [the car], which sometimes I can see and sometimes is less clear. “But even putting that aside, it’s still been a little bit tricky for me to always gel 100% with the car and feel like I can pull out these.”
“But yeah, just to pull out those ‘heaters’, I guess, it has been more tricky for sure; there’s been some races and times where it’s been good, but honestly, still working at it. I’d love to say that I’m going to be half a second quicker and awesome every race from now – I mean, I would love to and I’m working to get that but still, it’s a bit of a process.” The Australian opined.
